


Emphasis

by tiedyepieinthesky



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Best Friends, But no hunting, But so much fluff guys, Fluff and Angst, Guardian Angels, Kid Fic, Likely more tags to come, Multi, Nobody's a dick!, The angels are still angels, Then adult, Then teen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-01
Updated: 2017-03-01
Packaged: 2018-09-27 16:12:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10030973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tiedyepieinthesky/pseuds/tiedyepieinthesky
Summary: The holy words captured from Father’s mouth by the Scribe himself echoed in Castiel’s ear for one last time in the great darkness before his mind went blank.Each angel will fall to Earth to serve the humans they vowed to protect upon accepting admission to Heaven.He tried to remember the next line, then he tried to remember what he’d been searching for, but there was nothing in his mind, just blissful emptiness.His eyes flew open and a cry escaped his lips.“It’s a boy,” someone announced in the distance.Castiel didn’t understand that, of course.  All he knew was the burning in his chest as he screamed, and the searching until he couldn’t remember how.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I had the idea to write this while listening to "Emphasis" by Sleeping At Last (which I highly recommend listening to before reading and just in general because it is a gorgeous song). The story is structured so there is a scene after each lyric (lyrics are italicized), the story goes through the whole song, and the title for each chapter comes from a lyric within the part of the song that the story will cover.

_Death is promised to the bee_

As easy as it would have been to go on pretending that nothing would change, Castiel couldn’t continue to lie to himself so blatantly in good conscience.

“You’ll be alright,” Gabriel assured him.  “Everyone has to leave at some point.  It’s why we’re here.”  He added that last part softly, in the same tone one uses to whisper about something sacred.

“You can’t possibly know that,” Castiel pointed out, but it lacked his usual energy and had the empty ring of defeat.

Gabriel just reached over and squeezed his shoulder in an attempt to reassure.  “You were built for this Castiel.  I’ll be right here when you get back.”

And with that, Castiel fell, fell, fell until he could breathe once more.

 

_Whose sting protects the colony._

The holy words captured from Father’s mouth by the Scribe himself echoed in Castiel’s ear for one last time in the great darkness before his mind went blank.

_Each angel will fall to Earth to serve the humans they vowed to protect upon accepting admission to Heaven._

He tried to remember the next line, then he tried to remember what he’d been searching for, but there was nothing in his mind, just blissful emptiness.  

His eyes flew open and a cry escaped his lips.

“It’s a boy,” someone announced in the distance.

Castiel didn’t understand that, of course.  All he knew was the burning in his chest as he screamed, and the searching until he couldn’t remember how.

 

_Was its life worth nothing more_

“How is he?” Gabriel asked anxiously.  “Is he alright?  Is he hurt?”

“Of course not, Gabriel,” Michael answered with the practiced patience of a tired older sibling.  “No angels are ever hurt in the fall, you know that.”

“He was so scared,” Gabriel whispered.  “He didn’t want to go.”

Michael turned to him and said softly, “Nobody ever does, which is precisely why we have to.”

 

_Than honey for the queen?_

Castiel’s eyes were shut, but he wasn’t sleeping, not yet.  He hovered on the edge, barely holding on to consciousness but not quite ready to let go.

“Claude?”

“Absolutely not.  He’s not a hundred.”

“Claude was my grandfather’s name!” There was a short silence. “Point taken.”

“How about Charles?”

“Maybe.”

“We could call him Charlie.”

“Or people could start calling him Chuck.”

“Oh no, we wouldn’t want that.”

For a moment, neither of the voices said anything.  Castiel waited for them to continue; he wasn’t sure what the voices were saying―or even that the voices were saying anything at all―but the sounds were familiar, particularly the second one, and he liked hearing them.  He was just about to drift off when the second one picked up again.

“How about Caleb?”

“Hmmm….”

“According to this book, it’s from the Bible.  It means ‘faithful.’”

“I like that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Castiel let the darkness embrace him with that new sound ringing in his ears.

 

_Life is a branch and it is a dove,_

A few miles away, another set of eyes were opening for the first time.  A cry shattered the silence, and the child was placed into the open arms of a young woman with tears streaming from her eyes while a young man stood beside her, desperately trying to hide the pools forming in his.

“It’s a boy,” the doctor told the couple as she handed the baby to the woman.

“He’s so beautiful,” the woman whispered.

“Yeah,” was all the man could manage, but the woman looked up with a huge smile on her face, bigger than he’d ever seen her smile before.

“What should we call him?” she asked, returning her gaze to the squirming child and letting it rest there, taking in every detail.

“We talked about Samuel, for your dad.” the man reminded her.

“No, look at him.  He’s not a Samuel.  How about Henry for yours?”

The man laughed.  “He always hated that name.  He wouldn’t want us to pass it along to another poor soul.”

Neither said anything for a moment, distracted by the softly cooing baby they’d brought into the world and unable to look away.

“Well,” the man began at last.  “If both our fathers’ names are out, what about our mothers?”

She looked up at him with a puzzled expression.  “You want to name him Deanna?”

He smiled.  “I was thinking Dean.”

 

_Handcrafted by confusing love._

“John!” the woman shouted.  “Take him, I’m going to grab some more diapers!”

The man, John, shrugged the bag hanging around his wrist up to his shoulders and held his arms out to take his son.  

“Get him in the car,” the woman called over her shoulder.  “I’ll meet you outside!”

“Yes ma’am,” John called back playfully.

The woman rolled her eyes but didn’t bother to hide her smile.  She dashed through the familiar aisles, practically diving for the box on the bottom shelf just as another woman did the same.  Their hands brushed for a moment, then they both apologized profusely and encouraged each other to take the box until one of them finally took it and the other grabbed the one behind it.

“You’ve got a little one too, huh?” the woman asked.

“Oh yeah,” the other answered.  “My first, so it’s been quite an adventure.”

The woman laughed.  “I know the feeling.  Dean’s my first too.”

“Dean?” the other said, as if testing it on her tongue.  “That’s a great name.”

“Why thank you,” the woman said.  “I’m Mary, by the way.”

“Nice to meet you, Mary,” the other said.  “I’m Deborah.”

John came into the store after waiting for about ten minutes, carrying a sleeping Dean in his arms.

Mary and Deborah were giggling at the checkout line, holding identical boxes of diapers.  

“John!” Mary called when she noticed her husband walking toward her.  “This is Deborah.  Deborah, this is my husband John.”

“Good to meet you, John,” Deborah said and offered the hand that wasn’t holding the box.  “Your wife is simply a delight.”

“Say,” Mary said as she handed the cashier a ten.  “We should meet up sometime and have a play date for Caleb and Dean.”

The two swapped phone numbers with easy smiles.  Dean’s eyes opened slowly as he bounced gently in John’s arms.  Just as John stepped out of the store, another man slipped past him to go in.

The man called with an empty chastising tone, “Deb!  Caleb’s―oh, look now he’s up.  What could possibly be taking so long…”

The baby in his arms caught just a glimpse of green as the doors slid shut.

 

_Sign language is our reply,_

Mary sat beside Deborah, chatting about nothing as Dean squirmed in her arms.  When he let out a small pleading cry, she finally set him down.  Without waiting a moment, he scooted across the floor to where Caleb was shaking a small silver rattle.  Caleb saw him and dropped it, clapping instead and giggling as Dean rolled back and forth on his tummy.

“They’re growing so fast,” Deborah remarked.  “Before we know it, they’ll be off to college.”

“Don’t say that!” Mary said, eyes wide.

“You just wait,” Deborah said sadly.  “Eight months today, eighteen tomorrow.”

Caleb babbled, and Dean settled on his back to babble right back.

“It’s so cute how they’ve gotten so close,” Jacob, Deborah’s husband, said as he leaned in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room.

“Did I miss something?” John asked, dashing to Jacob’s side and searching the room for his son.  “Did he walk?”

“No, honey,” Mary reassured him.  “He’s just talking with Caleb.”

“Those two will be thick as thieves,” Jacob said.  “You just watch.  They’ll be inseparable.”

“They already are,” Deborah corrected.

Dean picked up Caleb’s rattle and offered it to him.  Caleb bounced and left his arms at his side.  Dean shook the rattle softly, as if waiting for permission.  Caleb smiled brightly.  The soft jingling filled the room as the four adults looked on in awe.  None of them had ever seen anything as beautiful and likely never would again.

 

_When church bells make no sound._

Gabriel ran a hand through his hair for the fifth time since walking into the room.  “How’s he doing, Michael?”

“He’s doing great,” Michael told him for what felt like the thousandth time.  “He’s found his human, and they’re getting along splendidly.  It’s better than we could’ve hoped.”

“Is he…” Gabriel began slowly.  “Is he happy?”

Michael lost his place on the tablet he was translating and met Gabriel’s gaze for the first time since he’d walked into the room.  That one was new.  
“I’m not sure,” Michael said.  “From what Raphael says he is, but it’s difficult to tell with babies.”

“He’s still a baby?” Gabriel gasped.  “I thought he’d be twenty or thirty by now!”

Michael rolled his eyes and returned his attention to his tablet once more.  “Patience, Gabriel.  He’ll be back soon enough.”

“If I could just send him a message, something to let him know―”

“Absolutely not,” Michael interrupted.  “You know the rules.  No Heavenly interference.  He’s meant to do this on his own.”

Gabriel deflated a bit before striding out.  As he went to search for his horn to soothe his nerves, he realized that Castiel probably didn’t even know to miss the sound of his voice.

 

_In hollow towers and empty hives,_

“You’re it!” Dean shrieked, patting Caleb’s shoulder quickly before darting behind the tree and trying to stifle his giggles into his sleeve.  When Caleb didn’t come chasing after him, he stuck his head out from behind the tree.  “Caleb?”

The boy hadn’t moved since Dean had tagged him.  He stood motionless in front of a tall redwood.

“Caleb, are you okay?” Dean asked hesitantly, still wary that it was a trap to make him "it" again.  When Caleb didn’t answer, he stepped closer until he was close enough to reach out and tap Caleb on the shoulder.

“Agh!” Caleb exclaimed, jumping in surprise.  “Dean, you scared me.”

“I’m sorry,” Dean said.  “I tagged you but you didn’t chase me.”

“Sorry,” Caleb replied, and he returned his attention to the tree as if Dean was something he thought he’d seen out of the corner of his eye that was gone when he’d turned to look.

“What’s up with this tree?” Dean asked, sitting on the soft grass beside Caleb’s feet.

“What tree?” Caleb asked in the slow way of someone whose mind is elsewhere.

The wind howled, and Caleb let his eyes fall closed as it ran over his face and through his dark hair.  

When he tried to explain it to Dean later, it didn’t make a lot of sense, but he thought he’d heard what almost sounded like music on the breeze.

 

_We craved sweetness with a fear of heights._

“What are you afraid of?” Dean demanded with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“We’ll get in trouble,” Caleb pointed out.

Dean shrugged, in part to hide the slight tremble.  “So what?”

“I don’t know, Dean…”

“Caleb, stop being such a baby and jump.”

Caleb rolled his eyes and shushed the protesting voice in his head as he acquiesced.  “Fine, but only if we jump at the same time.”

“Fine,” Dean agreed, slipping his hand into Caleb’s.  “One, two―”

Caleb tugged him forward and the two were falling, falling, falling until they hit the pool with a hard splash and a sting on their bellies.  Dean gasped when they resurfaced, and Caleb grinned as his mom ran out of the kitchen yelling over the sound of his dad demanding to know what was wrong.

Caleb swam to the edge of the pool with Dean in tow, but he couldn’t quite shake the feeling of something painfully familiar just barely out of reach.

 

_Was it all just a grain of sand_

“Happy birthday dear Caleb and Dean,” the party sang, rushing so all the syllables would fit.  “Happy birthday to you!”

“Make a wish,” John encouraged.

The two exchanged a glance before blowing out the one and the zero, igniting a roar of cheers before Jacob swept the cake off the table and disappeared into the kitchen with John following close behind.

Mary leaned down between the two, her pale ringlets tickling their cheeks as she whispered, “What’d you boys wish for?”

“Mom,” Dean said with feigned annoyance.  “You know if we tell you it won’t come true.”

“Okay fine,” she said standing up straight and ruffling their hair.  “At least tell me if it was something good.”

Dean looked over at Caleb and let his lips curl into a small smile. Caleb returned it, but he looked away when Jacob and John returned each carrying four plates and looking like they were about to drop all of them.

As the other children devoured their cake and the parents chatted in the kitchen, Dean leaned over and whispered, “I wished we’d be friends forever.”

“Dummy,” Caleb replied.  “Now it won’t come true.”

Dean punched his shoulder playfully, inadvertently knocking Caleb’s arm into his cake.

“Hey!”

Dean shrugged and reached to take a bite of his, but Caleb had already snatched his plate with a mischievous grin.  After a few failed attempts to steal it back, Caleb agreed to let Dean share it with him, and the two finished it before the adults noticed anything had happened at all.

 

_In an hourglass?_

“Caleb?” Dean whispered.  “Are you awake?”

Caleb rolled over in his sleeping bag with a groan and buried his face in his pillow.  “No.”

“Caleb,” Dean said.  “If you were asleep you wouldn’t answer.”

“Fine,” Caleb whined.  “What do you want?”

“Nothing will change, right?” He added quickly. “When we go to middle school?”

At this, Caleb forced himself to shake off his sleepy daze and flipped over to face Dean.

“Dean, of course not.  You’re my best friend.”

Dean nodded slowly, and Caleb reached out to grasp his hand tightly.

“Listen to me.  You have been my best friend since I was in diapers.  Nothing, and I mean _nothing_ will change that.”

“How do you know for sure?”

“I don’t,” Caleb admitted.  “I just feel it.”

Dean nodded once more, not terribly convinced, but he wanted to believe it badly enough to make up for his lack of certainty.  He let himself collapse back onto his pillow with a muttered “goodnight.”

Caleb lowered himself back down to his side but couldn’t fall back asleep.  When Dean’s breathing evened, he rolled onto his back and looked at the glow-in-the-dark stars on his ceiling to try and find constellations.  He knew where his mother had hidden Orion, and he was looking for it, but all he could see was the lyra until he finally drifted off with soft chords echoing in his ears.  

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed reading (more to come soon)
> 
> Comments and kudos make my day :)


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